Quesnel anchors TTMA

Paul Quesnel believes that if the right environment is not created for local manufacturers, then all of their plans will be a pipe dream. He also believes that people must stop passing the buck. “We have not asked the Government for tax relief. We have not asked the Government to give us anything else,” he said with a voice that’s hard to ignore. “We continue to ask the Government to give us an environment in which we can perform. What we need immediately is to make sure that the environment that we have to work in is functioning,” he said at an interview at the association’s Barataria headquarters. Quesnel is the new man at the helm of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) and   replaced Anthony Aboud at the TTMA’s annual general meeting last week.

He believes that manufacturers are  pivotal to TT’s development and growth. “If you cannot get your raw materials into the country in a timely fashion or your finished product out to your customers overseas efficiently, you are not going to be in business,” he said, adding, “When you’re not in business, that means somebody is going to lose their job but we are looking at job creation in this country.” Quesnel identified global competitiveness as one of the obstacles facing local companies in the coming years. Quesnel said the main question is, “How do we maintain our competitiveness with what is happening in our country at this present time? The answer for both the TTMA and the country is  to give us an environment in which we can perform.”

The  manufacturing sector, he said, employs about 60,000 people, second only to the Government and stressed that more manufacturing enterprises are needed, if we are to stay competitive. Quesnel noted that if TT’s institutions do not stay on the cutting edge of change then, like manufacturers’ businesses, they will collapse. He added that the TTMA continues to make its contribution to sustainable employment in TT by  promoting education in the workplace through initiatives such as its Business Sector School Intervention  Programme and is also looking at the possibilities contained in an auto skill programme for mathematics and language from World Wide Net Ltd. His pet peeve is the inefficiencies that continue to plague the port of Port-of-Spain.

Quesnel vowed that the association plans to hold Port Authority of TT chairman Noel Garcia to his promise that operations at the Port will improve by September. Quesnel said around this time of year manufacturers start brin-ging in raw materials to deal with the Christmas orders. He said quite apart from the regular traders that are bringing in their goods, there is increased container movement on the Port, from now until the end of the year. He warned that chaos could erupt on the Port, if the measures outlined by  Garcia and Narine Singh, the Port’s acting CEO, do not improve Port operations. Quesnel said the TTMA will be the Port’s “watchdogs” over the coming year. On Works and Transport Minister Franklin Khan’s disclosure that a modernised Port-of-Spain port would be part of a comprehensive waterfront development plan from Chaguaramas to the northern edge of the Caroni Swamp, Quesnel said this must be taken in stride.

“If Government feels that they need to use the lands occupied by the Port of Port-of-Spain for urban development, all very well and good, but they need to build a new Port somewhere else and that needs to be done before they shut down the old Port,” he said. “The old port has to keep up with the growth,” he noted, adding that this year the Port is projecting an eight percent increase over last year. “The business is growing, so before you shut it down to put up hotels or restaurants on the seafront, you need to keep that in mind before you shut it down,” he said. The TTMA president said continuing deficiencies in the Customs Division was adding to the port’s woes. Quesnel said in recent discussions with the Comptroller of Customs and other senior Customs officials, he was told that even though the Government made attempts to provide the Division with the necessary manpower and equipment to do their jobs effectively, businessmen will have to live with some inadequacies for the time being.

The TTMA president added that he looked forward to the day when technology such as scanners would be used on the Port to prevent any illegal materials from coming in and prevent cargo from going missing. Still, Quesnel is the eternal optimist and believes that one cannot succumb to the “epidemic of pessimism” now affecting several parts of the national community. Quesnel said all that is needed now is the hardware and the right plan to get the job done. Quesnel declared: “TT has to grow up.  We cannot continue to hang on to other people’s shirttails. We have to get up and walk for ourselves.” “We need to ensure that whatever we do, we do with proper regulations and make sure people are held accountable. We have to stop passing the buck.  We have passed that stage in our lives,” Quesnel said.